WASHINGTON: The Group of 20 economic powers has urged the global adoption of standards for sharing bank account information in an effort to fight tax evasion and curtail banking secrecy.

The G20 said they “strongly encourage” all countries to sign on to a commitment to the automatic exchange of banking information “which is expected to be the standard,” in the group’s strongest endorsement yet of a move that takes aim especially at tax havens.

“More needs to be done to address the issues of international tax avoidance and evasion, in particular through tax havens, as well as non-cooperative jurisdictions,” the G20 said in a statement on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

It urged all countries to accept the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a framework for the sharing of banking data.

“We welcome progress made toward automatic exchange of information which is expected to be the standard and urge all jurisdictions to move toward exchanging information automatically with their treaty partners, as appropriate.”

The Group of 20 economic powers also said major crises had been overcome but that more efforts are needed to strengthen global growth.

The G20 “reaffirmed our determination to raise growth and create jobs,” the group said in its statement.

“The global economy has avoided some major tail risks and financial market conditions continue to improve. However, global growth has continued to be too weak and unemployment remains too high in many countries.”

“We have agreed that while progress has been made, further actions are required to make growth strong, sustainable and balanced.”

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors said the global economy is still held back by uncertain government policies, still-heavy private and public debt loads, impaired bank lending, and “incomplete rebalancing” of global demand — a push on surplus economies like Germany and Japan to stimulate more local demand.

But they also urged the US and Japan, both undertaking strong efforts to expand domestic demand, to quickly fashion “credible” medium-term plans for reeling in their huge debt and deficit loads.

“We will continue to implement ambitious structural reforms to increase our growth potential and create jobs,” the group added.